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THE TRAVEL SERIES — No. 6 
jblished Weekly Price, 50 Cents Annual Subscription, $25.00 November 29, 1897 

ENTERED AT THE CHICAGO POST-OFFICE AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER 



EGYPT 



BY 



JOHN L.STODDARD 



Illustrated and Embellished with One Hundred 

and Nineteen Reproductions of 

Photographs 




CHICAGO 
BELFORD, MIDDLEBROOK & COMPANY 

MDCCCXCVII 



Copyright, 1897, by John L. Stoddard 



V4<W-l^-<^ ( 



l^h^A.^'L^ /T.^ to 



'i^ 



DEC 9 1897 



i^i> of Cong^!^- 



EGYPT 



BY 



.^. 



JOHN brSTODDARD 



ILLUSTRATED AND EMBELLISHED WITH ONE HUNDRED 

AND NINETEEN REPRODUCTIONS OF 

PHOTOGRAPHS 



1^ 




CHICAGO 

BELFORD, MIDDLEBROOK & COMPANY 

MDCCCXCVII 



Ukb^^H-e 






Copyright, 1897 
By John L. Stoddard 



Entered at Stationers' Hall, London 
all rights reserved 



EGYPT 




LANDS that have made or witnessed history possess 
peculiar fascination; and when to their historical 
qualities are added those of the mysterious and the 
beautiful, their charm is boundless, for then they touch the 
realm of the imagination, that is to say, the infinite. 

Egypt in these respects is unsurpassed. Historically, she 
is the eldest born of Time; the mother of all subsequent 
civilizations; the longest lived among the nations of the 
earth ; the teacher of art, philosophy, and religion before 
Greece and Rome were born.^ When everywhere else rude 
huts and primitive tents were mankind's highest forms of 







AN EGYPTIAN LANDSCAPE. 



architecture, Egypt was rearing her stupendous pyramids and 
temples, which still remain the marvel of the world. 

It stirs the blood merely to read the names of the great 
actors in that mighty drama of the past, whose theatre was 



6 EGYPT 

the valley of the Nile. For Egypt is the land of Rameses 
and the Pharaohs; of Joseph and of Moses; of Alexander 
the Great and the Ptolemies; of Caesar, Antony, and Cleo- 
patra, — a land beside whose awful ruins the Colosseum of 




HARBOR OF ALEXANDRIA. 



Rome, the Parthenon of Athens, and even the Temple of 
Jerusalem, are the productions of yesterday. 

But Egypt is also a land of mystery. Her history goes 
back so far that it is finally lost in the unknown, as the Nile 
Valley gradually gives place to the sands of the Sahara. Her 
very origin appears at first miraculous. For Egypt has been 
literally built up by that mysterious river whose sources have, 
till recently, perplexed and baffled all explorers for five thou- 
sand years. Her situation also is unique, — a palm-girt path 
of civilization walled in by two deserts. Silence broods over 
her. Solemnity environs her.' She is a land in which the 
dead alone are great : — a temple of antiquity, whose monu- 
ments are the eternal Pyramids and Sphinx. Her glory is 
secure beyond the possibility of loss, embalmed in art and 
literature like her mummied kings. 



EGYPT 



; 



What wonder, then, that standing on the shadowy 
threshold of prehistoric times, Egypt still charms us by the 
irresistible attraction of undying fame? What marvel that 
her vast antiquity and changeless calm possess a power, like 
that of fabled Lethe, to render us forgetful of the feverish 
excitements of the western world, and from her silent and en- 
during monuments to teach us the littleness of gods and men? 

Alexandria is the front door of Egypt, as Suez, on the 
Red Sea, is its portal from the rear. Through this historic 




C^SAR AND CLEX)PATKA. 



city of the Mediterranean the tide of Occidental travel every 
winter ebbs and flows as surely as the rise and fall of the 
majestic Nile. Unlike the rest of Egypt, however, Alex- 
andria lacks the flavor of remote antiquity. A century ago 



8 



EGYPT 



a traveler said of it that it resembled an orphan child, who 
had inherited from his father nothing but his name. Hence 
it is hard to realize, when one stands within its walls to-day, 
that twenty centuries ago Alexandria ranked among the 
largest and most brilliant cities in the world, and was the 
principal emporium of the East, receiving the products of 
interior Africa, Arabia, and India, and forwarding them to 
all other sections of the Roman empire, till the astonished 
Caesars half believed the assertion that the Alexandrians pos- 
sessed the power of making gold. This city was, moreover, 
for centuries the principal seat of Grecian learning; and here 
St. Mark is said to have proclaimed the Gospel, with the 

result that Alexandria finally 
became the intellectual strong- 
hold of Christianity. 

Nor can the tourist forget 
that this was the favorite city 
of two conquerors, unrivaled in 
their way, — the first, its earliest 
ruler, Alexander; the second, 
its last queen, the peerless Cleo- 
patra. One subdued empires; 
the other conquered hearts; for 
who can think of Alexandria 
without recalling how the "En- 
chantress of the Nile " here cap- 
tivated the world's conqueror, 
^ Julius Caesar, and subsequently 
made the great Triumvir, An- 
tony, her willing slave for fourteen years? 

But war and pillage have destroyed the relics of old Alex- 
andria almost as completely as though a tidal wave from the 
adjoining ocean had swept over it. Its pure white marble 
lighthouse, Pharos, which surpassed the Pyramids in height, 




CLEOPATRA S NEEDLE. 



EGYPT 



and was considered one of the seven wonders of the world, is 
now no longer visible. The mausoleum of Alexander the 
Great, in which the youthful conqueror's body lay in a sar- 
cophagus of pure gold, has also passed away. The immense 
Alexandrian library, — the largest of antiquity, — has long since 

vanished in flame and smoke. 
^fi^. .>#^^' & -pj^g magnificent Museum of 

-^-^' Ptolemy Philadelphus, which, 



r ■-•>'•• 




APPROACH TO POMPEY S PILLAR. 



two and a half centuries before Christ, was the acknowledged 
meeting-place of scholars and sages from all lands, and the 
focus of the intellectual life of the world, has so effectually 
disappeared that no one can determine with certainty its 
ancient site. Even in modern times Alexandria has suffered 
spoliation. Until quite recently, the traveler saw upon its 
shore — one prostrate, one erect — the obelisks known as Cleo- 
patra's Needles, which were hewn from the quarry thirty-five 
hundred years ago. But these have been conveyed to dis- 



/ 



/ 



lO 



EGYPT 



tant lands, — one of theni standing now beside the Thames in 
London, the other in Central Park, New York. From the ear- 
liest times the obelisks of Egypt have fascinated travelers. 
The Assyrians and Persians carried some of them away. 
Rome has eleven in her streets to-day. Another 
stands in Constantinople ; while, beside the Seine, 
the obelisk of Luxor rebukes with its solemnity 
the whirl of gaiety in the modern capital of 
pleasure. Only one great memorial of the past 
remains in Alexandria. It is the stately mon- 
olith of red granite, misnamed Pompey's Pillar. 
For ages it was supposed that this im- 
posing shaft, which with its capital and 
pedestal attains a height of more than a 
hundred feet, had been erected here in 
memory of Caesar's mighty rival, who, 
fleeing southward after the battle of 
Pharsalia, was murdered on the Egyp- 
tian coast. But the name Pompeius, 
sculptured on its pedestal, is merely that 
of the Roman prefect who reared this 
magnificent column to the Roman em- 
peror Diocletian, in the third century 
after Christ, perhaps in gratitude for a 
gift of grain that he had sent to Alex- 
andria. The statue which adorned its 
summit long since disappeared, leaving 
no trace behind to tell us whom it repre- 
sented ; and whether or not this noble 
column once formed part of an Egyptian temple founded 
long anterior to the Romans, is still a matter of dispute. 
Beyond all question, however, is the fact that its shadow 
falls to-day upon a dreary Arab cemetery, — pathetic symbol 
of the buried glories of the city it once adorned. 




rOMPITV S PILLAR. 




•r^v.^^i>'l 




i 



1 #^^|)li|lB- 



EGYPT 



13 



The European quarter of Alexandria is well lighted and 
possesses many handsome residences. Much capital is 
invested here, and evidences of wealth abound. The future 
prosperity of the city seems assured. Within its sheltered 
harbor is abundant sea-room for the largest fleets, and from 
this ocean gateway railroads now extend to Cairo, Port Said, 
Suez, and the Upper Nile ; while at this point the Mediter- 
ranean cable joins the telegraph wire along whose metal 




HOTEL ABBAT, ALEXANDRIA. 



thread the messages of war and commerce, or tender words 
of love to distant friends, may be conveyed at lightning speed 
from Europe, Asia, or America, to the heart of Africa. 

The main business section of Alexandria is the Square of 
Mehemet Ali. Fronting on this long rectangle are the prin- 
cipal hotels, banks, and steamship offices, and in the centre 
is the equestrian statue of the first Viceroy of Egypt, whose 
name the area bears. One would expect to see his statue 



H 



EGYPT 



^8*^^ 




AN EGYPTIAN PORTER. 



here, for Mehemet Ali was the most remark- 
able man the Orient has produced in the last 
hundred years. His influence is felt here to 
this day. Without him Egypt could 
not have attained her present position 
of semi-independence and prosperity. 
For forty years he was the arbiter of 
Egypt. He was a despot; but there 
are times when autocratic sovereigns 
are a necessity. Nations are like in- 
dividuals: at certain stages in their 
history they need authority and disci- 
pline to force them into habits of in- 
dustry and unquestioning obedience. 
Alexandria has reason to be grateful to 

Mehemet Ali. Before he made himself dictator of Egypt, 

and freed himself from vassalage to the Sultan, the splendid 

city of the Ptolemies had dwindled into insignificance, and was 

a mere haunt of 

fishermen and 

pirates. But in 

a dozen years 

he transformed 

it, until it was 

once more an 

entrepot of 

Eastern trade, a 

half-way house 

to India, and 

the great meet- 

ing point of 

Europe, Africa, 

and Asia. At 

his command its 




A PALACE OF THE KHEDIVE. 



EGYPT 



15 



harbor was reopened and made safe for merchant ships, and 
his indomitable energy soon caused a huge canal to be con- 
structed, which proved to be one of the most important works 
of modern times, — a navigable waterway by which the traffic 
of the Nile was brought to Alexandria. This Mahmoodiah 
Canal was made within the space of a year. A quarter of a 
million natives were compelled to labor on it, and of these 
twenty-five thousand are said to have perished on its banks 




SQUARE OF MEHEMET ALL 



from overwork and insufficient food. But, while lamenting 
the cruelty attending its construction, we must concede to 
the Egyptian autocrat full credit for the work achieved, 
which has raised Alexandria from poverty, and filled its empty 
treasury with constantly increasing wealth. Mehemet AH, 
like most great geniuses, was a ''self-made man," rising by 
his undoubted talents from the position of a colonel in the 
Turkish army to be Viceroy of Egypt and the founder of the 
present dynasty. 



i6 



EGYPT 



He was a proof of how the Orient, once so prolific of 
great men, can still surprise us. Give to the East a leader 
capable of arousing its enthusiasm and of kindling its relig- 
ious zeal, and Europe might again be forced to struggle 
desperately for its life and liberties. Thus, coming like a 
thunderbolt from a clear sky, Mehemet Ali, with twenty- 
four thousand men, emerged from Egypt, conquered Syria, 




and drove the Turks before him into the heart of Asia 
Minor. Under the leadership of Mehemet's dashing son, 
Ibrahim (a son worthy of such a father), the Egyptians 
fought as they had never fought before. Mehemet Ali was 
declared an outlaw ; but army after army sent against him 
by the Sultan was hopelessly defeated. The victor rapidly 
approached the Bosporus; Constantinople itself seemed actu- 
ally within his grasp; but the united powers of Europe, 
startled by this sudden resurrection of the Orient, cried in 



EGYPT 



i; 



the thunder of a hundred 
cannon, "Halt!" and Ibra- 
him could go no farther. 
Bafifled and broken-hearted, 
the great adventurer re- 
turned with his son to 
Egypt, the sovereignty of 
which he still retained, and 
to console himself for the 
failure of his brilliant dream 
of Eastern conquest and ex- 
tensive empire, he gained 
at least the privilege of be- 
queathing to his descendants 
his viceregal power. 

But, interesting as one may at first find the cosmopolitan 
and progressive city of Alexandria, it is by no means thor- 
oughly Egyptian, and should be regarded as merely a door- 




AN EGYPTIAN PEASANT. 




VEGETATION IN THE DELTA. 



i8 



EGYPT 



way to the real glories of the land of the Pharaohs. Hence, 
after a stay of a few days on the coast, one always hastens 
into the interior of the country. 

A bird's-eye view of Lower Egypt would reveal a vast 
expanse of cultivated territory in the form of a triangle, the 
base of which is on the Mediterranean. From its resem- 
blance to the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet, this area 
has for ages been appropriately called the Delta. A poet 
has compared it to a beautiful green fan, with Cairo sparkling 
like a diamond in its handle. 




THE MENA HOTEL. 



The simile is an apt one, for in the days of the Caliphs, a 
thousand years ago, Cairo was the brightest jewel of the 
Nile, — the rival of Bagdad and Damascus in the annals of 
the Arabian Nights; and even now, to one who comes to it 
directly from the Occident, its Oriental brilliancy is most 
impressive. m9 

On my first visit to Egypt in the days of Ismail Pasha, 
there was practically only one Cairo. Now there are two, — 
the African and European, — contending, not for political 
supremacy, which has been definitely won by England, but 
for supremacy in architecture, dress, and manners. 



EGYPT 



21 



New Cairo has become a charming winter residence, but 
the old city of the Cahphs, as the traveler saw it only thirty 
years ago, is gone. Red-coated British soldiers now swarm 
upon the citadel of Mehemet Ali ; Egyptian troops wear 
European uniforms; the narrow, covered streets, which 
painters like Gerome so loved to reproduce, have largely 
given place to broad, unshadowed thoroughfares; and most 
of the exquis- 
itely carved and 
inlaid balconies 
which formerly 
adorned the 
front of nearly 
every Cairene 
house, have dis- 
appeared. On 
the other hand, 
magnificent ho- 
tels have sprung 
into exist- 
ence, and in 
the winter shel- 
ter crowds of 
foreign guests 
whose ancestors 
were savages 

for three thousand years after the completion of the Sphinx. 
One of these hotels has even dared to plant itself at the very 
base of the Great Pyramid ! 

Cairo, modernized by the English, may be compared to a 
fashionable piece of western furniture placed on an eastern 
rug, or to a Bedouin of the desert wearing a silk hat and a 
Prince Albert coat. While the city has greatly gained in 
modern characteristics, as well as in sanitary conditions, it 




AN OLD STREET. 



22 



EGYPT 



has lost much of its old picturesqueness. Nevertheless, within 
its ancient precincts there are still many streets of Moorish 
aspect, with mosques, bazaars, and Oriental dwellings, among 
which one seems to be a thousand miles removed from 

western civiliza- 
tion. But these 
attractive feat- 
ures of the past 
are undergoing 
radical trans- 
formation. Dur- 
ing the reign of 
Ismail Pasha, the 
ratio between 
the East and 
West in Cairo 
left little to be 
desired, and the 
Egyptian capital 
then combined 
just enough 
modern luxuries 
A LATTICED WINDOW. and comforts to 

offset gracefully some less agreeable characteristics of the 
Orient. Thus, even as early as 1 871, the Khedive had built 
a handsome Opera House in Cairo, and had offered the com- 
poser Verdi a munificent sum for an opera which should 
represent the glories of old Egypt. The result was that 
finest production of the modern Italian school, Aida, whose 
representation here on a scale of great magnificence, with 
Madame Parepa Rosa in the title role, is one of my most 
treasured memories of a winter on the Nile. 

Occasionally, in some old, narrow street, one may see, 
even now, what was a score of years ago a well-nigh uni- 







EGYPT 



23 



versal architectural feature of the city, 
the Mashrebeeyeh, — a latticed win- 
dow made of cedar wood, inlaid with 
mother-of-pearl. Such windows are 
admirably suited to the Orient, for 
they exclude both light and heat, and 
also screen the inmates from all obser- 
vation, — an important consideration in 
Cairo, since in 
these narrow 
passageways, 
when once above 
the lower story, 
the houses rap- 
idly approach 
each other till 
their projecting 
windows almost 
meet. If you 
glance up at 
these, you may 
perhaps perceive 
at one of the 
interstices the 
flash of a jewel, 
or the gleam of 
a bright eye, and 
hear a musical 
laugh, or the ex- 
clamation, ''Gia- 
our!" (Infidel). A stay of only a few hours in Cairo will 
convince the tourist that the typical animal of Egypt is 
the donkey. Of these there are said to be fifty thousand 
in Cairo alone. Most of them are of the color of Maltese 




MINARETS IN CAIRO. 



24 



EGYPT 



cats, and all are closely clipped, and have their bodies fan- 
tastically painted, starred, or striped, until they look like min- 
iature zebras. They are so small that the feet of their riders 

almost touch 
the ground. 
But they are 
swift-footed 
and easy, and 
riding on their 
backs is almost 
as comfortable 
as sitting in a 
rocking- chair. 
Why has the 
donkey never 
found a eulo- 
gist? The horse 
is universally 
admired. The 
Arab poet sings 
of the beauties 
of his camel. 

The bull and cow have been held sacred, and even the dog 
and cat have been praised in prose and verse. But the poor 
donkey still remains the butt of ridicule, the symbol of stu- 
pidity and the object of abuse. But if there is another and 
a better world for animals, and if in that sphere patience ranks 
as a prime virtue, the ass will have a better pasture-ground 
than many of its rivals. The donkey's small size exposes it 
to cruelty. When animals have power to defend themselves, 
man's caution makes him kinder. He hesitates to hurt an 
elephant, and even respects to some extent the heels of a 
mule. But the donkey corresponds to the small boy who 
cannot protect himself in a crowd of brutal playmates. The 




A CAIRENE SIGHT. 



EGYPT 



25 



only violent thing about it is its voice, and on the human 
ass this voice has very little restraining influence. It is diffi- 
cult to see how these useful animals could be replaced in 
certain countries of the world. Purchased cheaply, reared 
inexpensively, living on thistles, if they get nothing better, 
and patiently carrying heavy burdens until they drop from 
weakness, — these little beasts are of incalculable value to the 
laboring classes of Southern Europe, Egypt, Mexico, and 
similarly situated lands. If they have failed to win affection, 
it is perhaps because of their one infirmity, — the startling 
tones which they produce. 

On the morning after our arrival in Cairo, we went out 
on the steps of Shep- 
heard's Hotel prepared 
to take a ride through 
the city. Directly oppo- 
site were thirty 
or forty Egyp- 
tian donkeys, all 
saddled and bri- 
dled, awaiting 
riders. Their 
drivers (whose 





principal gar- 
ment was a 
long woolen 
shirt) stood by 
them, almost 
as anxious to be 
employed as 
New York hack- 
men, for, if they return to their masters at night empty- 
handed, they receive a beating. The sight of strangers de- 
scending the hotel steps was, therefore, a signal for them 



A PROMENADE. 



26 



EGYPT 




SLEEPING DONKEY BOY. 



to make a grand rush for- 
ward, pushing and crowd- 
ing their wretched beasts, 
and shouting at the top of 
their voices the 
ludicrous names 
which previous 
travelers had be- 
stowed upon 
these animals: — 
''Take mine, good 
donkey, — very- 
good ! " " Take 
mine, ' Champagne 
Charley!" "'Take 
mine, 'Abe Lincoln!' " "Take mine, 'Prince Bismarck!' 
"Take mine, 'Yankee Doodle!' " The noise and confusion 
are most comical to an observer. When the stranger has 

once mounted, 
the boy catches 
hold of the don- 
key's tail (which 
he uses as a rud- 
der), gives him a 
whack in the rear, 
shouts " Ah-ye! 
Reglah!" and off 
they go, present- 
ing a scene that 
never failed to 
excite our merri- 
ment. 

Towering far 
above the city of 




AN EGYPTIAN DONKEY. 



EGYPT 



29 



the Caliphs is a huge fortress called the Citadel. As is well 
known, Cairo is of Arabian origin, — a brilliant memento of 
Mohammedan conquest. Its name (in Arabic, Al Kahireh) 
signifies ' ' The Victorious. ' ' When, in the seventh century after 
Christ, the followers of the Prophet, inspired with enthusiasm 
for their new religion, rushed 

northward s . ~^*-, from Arabia 




THE CITADEL. 



victory and proselytism (which ultimately made the greater 
part of the Mediterranean a Moslem lake), Egypt was one of 
their first and most important conquests. Memphis, the an- 
cient City of the Pharaohs, was then still extant, adorned 
with many imposing monuments that had survived the lapse 
of centuries. But this old capital of an alien faith ill suited 



30 



EGYPT 



the impetuous zealots of Mohammed. They therefore founded 
Cairo, only a few miles away, and did not scruple to remove 
thither, for the construction of its buildings, the blocks of 
stone of which the palaces and temples of old Memphis were 
composed. It was the famous Saladin, — the brave and 
chivalrous foe of Richard the Lion-Hearted in Syria, — w^ho 
built the citadel of Cairo; and the unscrupulous architect 
employed by him for this purpose destroyed several small 

pyramids, and 
used the larger 
ones, which had 
been reared five 
thousand years 
before, as stone 
quarries from 
wdiich to extract 
building mate- 
rial for this for- 
tress, called by 
the Arabs the 
" Castle of the 
Nile. " Here 
Saladin's suc- 
cessors lived for 
centuries, making this City of the Caliphs the rival of Damas- 
cus; and here, in the present century, the cunning Viceroy, 
Mehemet Ali, used to sit, like a spider in its web, ready to 
let loose upon the city below a volley of destruction at the 
first whisper of revolt. It was here also that, in i8ii, this 
relentless ruler caused his political enemies, the Mamelukes, to 
be massacred. The name Mameluke signifies "White Slave," 
and the actual founders of this corps were originally Circas- 
sian slaves, who gradually climbed to the position, first of 
favorites, then of tyrants. It is true, they had helped 




THE CASTLE OF THE NILE. 



EGYPT 



31 



Mehemet AH to secure his place of power; 
but he suspected that they regretted it and 
were conspiring to destroy him. At all 
events, the Viceroy, having used them as 
a ladder for his vast ambition, found it ex- 
pedient to get rid of them, as Napoleon, at 
the Battle of the Pyramids, had sought to 
exterminate them. Accordingly he invited 
these powerful foes to a banquet in the cita- 
del. They came without suspicion, — four 
hundred and eighty in number, superbly 
dressed and finely mounted. But no sooner 
had the portals closed behind them, than a 
scathing fire was opened upon them by Me- 
hemet All's troops, who suddenly appeared 
upon the walls. Unable alike to defend 
themselves or to escape, the Mamelukes 
fell beneath repeated volleys, horses and men in horrible 
confusion, anguish, and despair, — with the exception of one 
man, who, spurring his horse in desperation over the welter- 
ing bodies of his comrades, forced him to leap over the lofty 
parapet. A shower of bullets followed him, scarcely more 
swift than his descending steed, but he escaped as if by 
miracle, and freeing himself from his mangled horse, he fled 
in safety into the adjoining desert. 




AN EGYPTIAN SOLDIER. 




VIEW FROM THE CITAD 



32 



EGYPT 



Meantime, in an adjoining room (still shown to visitors), 
Mehemet Ali is said to have remained, calm and motionless, 
save for a nervous twitching of his hands, though he could 
plainly hear the rattle of musketry and the shrieks and groans 
of the dying. 

When all was over, his Italian physician ventured into his 
presence to congratulate him. The Viceroy made no reply, 
but merely asked for drink, and, in a silence more eloquent 
than any speech, drank a long, deep draught. He knew that 
thenceforth he was absolute master of Egypt, — possibly sover- 
eign of the East. 

The view at sunset from this Cairene citadel is wonder- 
fully impressive, and during several sojourns in Cairo I rarely 
failed to climb the hill each evening to enjoy it. Standing 
on the parapet of this Arabian fortress, one sees below him 

in the immedi- 



ate foreground 
a grove of grace- 
ful minarets, ri- 
sing like sculp- 
tured palm- 
trees from an 
undulating mass 
of foliage and 
bulbous domes. 
Beyond these, 
stretching to the 
north and south 
as far as the eye 
can follow it, is 
a magnificent 
belt of verdure. Along its centre, like a broad band of silver, 
gleams the river Nile, within whose depths the beautiful An- 
tinous found death for his imperial master, and which at this 











THE DESERT. 



EGYPT 



33 



point has borne upon its breast the cradle of the infant Moses 
and the regal barge of Cleopatra. 

Still farther westward, the declining sun seems to be sink- 
ing into a violet sea, so mar- 
velous is the light that glorifies 
the tawny desert, — symbol of 
perpetual desolation. Upon 
the edge of that vast area, into 
whose depths the orb of day 
seems disappearing never to re- 
turn, three mighty shapes stand 
sharply forth, piercing a sky of 
royal purple. Their huge tri- 
angular shadows travel slowly 
eastward, farther and farther, 
as the sun descends, 

"Like dials that the wizard, Time, 
Had raised to count his ages by." 

They" are the Pyramids, 
whose awful forms have been 
enveloped thus in sunset shad- 
ows every evening for at least 
five thousand years; and when they finally vanish in the 
gloom, as most of Egypt's history and glory has been swal- 
lowed up in the impenetrable darkness of the past, one real- 
izes that there is no view on earth which can so eloquently 
tell him of the grandeur of antiquity and the eternal mystery 

of time. 

" The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon 
Turns Ashes — or it prospers; and anon. 

Like Snow upon the Desert's dusty Face, 
Lighting a little Hour or two— is gone." 

Within the citadel of Cairo, only a few steps from the 
scene of the massacre of the Mamelukes, is the beautiful 
mosque erected by Mehemet Ali, not, as one might suppose, 




ANTINOUS. 



34 



EGYPT 




INTEKIOK OF A MOSQUE. 



in expiation of 
his crime, but as 
the exalted place 
in which his body 
should repose. 
His expectation 
was fulfilled, and 
the remains of 
the talented but" 
cruel Viceroy are 
sepulchred in a 
magnificent 
mausoleum. 
From the dis- 
play of oriental 
alabaster in ev- 
ery portion of this edifice, it has been called the Alabaster 
Mosque. It has a noble courtyard, with an elaborately dec- 
orated fountain, and its proportions are imposing. But its 
most pleasing 
architectural 
feature is its 
slender mina- 
rets, which soar 
far above the 
city, resembling 
silver tapers 
placed about 
the Viceroy's 
tomb. 

The tourist 
soon discovers 
that the mosque 
of Mehemet AH 




THE HOUSE OF THE AFRIT. 




SOLDIER AND DROMEDARY. 



EGYPT 



37 



is not the only one in Cairo. On the contrary, mosques are 
more numerous in Cairo than churches are in Rome. Con- 
nected with most of them are curious superstitions. In one, 
for example, two columns are believed to mark the precise spot 
where Noah's Ark finally found a resting-place. Nay, not 




A STREET SCENE IN CAIRO. 



content with this, the legend claims that this is also the 
place where Abraham -Dffered up the ram instead of his son 
Isaac. These columns, therefore, are supposed to possess 
remarkable healing power, and are kept highly polished by 
being rubbed with pieces of orange and lemon peel, which 



38 



EGYPT 



are then applied to diseased portions of the body. One day 
we were much amused to see two men Hcking these posts 
vigorously, in the hope of making their stomachs strong. 
This is perhaps the only remedy for dyspepsia not yet adver- 
tised in the Occident ! 

Similar superstitions are associated with one of the oldest 
gates of Cairo, the name of which appears in the tales of the 
Arabian Nights. A friend who had lived several years in 
Egypt took us one day to see this portal, which is supposed 
to be haunted by an afrit, or evil spirit. For some time we 
were entertained by watching several old women in succes- 
sion approach the gate cautiously, spit three times over their 
left shoulder, to exorcise the demon, and then peer behind 




TOMBS OF THE CALIPHS, 



the door with much the same expression that some of their 
sex of the Occident assume, when they look timidly under 
a bed at night. Their object was to see if the afrit was at 
home. What they might have done if they had discovered 



EGYPT 



39 




it, would be difficult to conjecture. But the demon was evi- 
dently "out " that day, — possibly having been recalled to 
headquarters. Accordingly the women left what answered 
for their cards. One, for example, inserted in a crevice of 
the gate an old tooth, and hob- 
bled off, believing she would 
thenceforth have no toothache. 
Another tied to a rusty nail a 
lock of hair (presumably her own), 
and smiled to think she would 
thenceforth be exempt from head- 
ache. Thus this demon-haunted 
portal is kept continually deco- 
rated with ghastly teeth and 
wisps of hair. 

It is a curious fact, by the 
way, that if these people were 
requested to explain their idea of 
Satan, they would probably de- 
scribe him as a blond. A Euro- 
pean traveler in Africa relates 
that the women in one village 
gathered round him in astonish- 
ment, declaring that he was as 
"white as the Devil." Passing 
beyond this portal, we found, 
outside the city walls, some interesting structures which we 
recognized as the far-famed tombs of the Caliphs. The 
name "Caliph," or "Successor," was the title assumed after 
the Prophet's death by the Mohammedan rulers, some of 
whom reigned here in magnificence for many years. Even 
in their ruined condition, we can easily see that these Ara- 
bian sepulchres must once have been of exquisite beauty; for 
the material of many of them is white alabaster, and all their 



I' 




NEGLECTED BEAUTY. 



40 



EGYPT 



domes are well-proportioned and ornamented with an ara- 
besque stone tracery so delicate, that one could fancy them 
to be covered with lace mantles. To see these graceful sepul- 
chres of the Caliphs from a distance in the glow of sunset, 
is to behold what seems like a mirage of 

Saracenic architecture. But "^ aHH^^x. near 

approach reveals the fact 
that they have been 
allowed to fall into 
shameful decay, and, 
incredible as it seems. 




GRACEFUL SEPULCHRES AND HIDEOUS GRAVES. 



bats 
and lizards 
now infest the 
beautifully sculp- 
tured walls, and 
families of Egyp- 
tian beggars make 
their homes within 
the tombs of Mo- 
hammed's successors. On the cracked side of one of them 
a Persian poet once wrote these words: "Each crevice of 
this ancient tomb resembles a half-opened mouth, which 
laughs at the inevitable fate of those who dwell in palaces!" 

Around them, and in striking contrast to their former 
splendor, are hundreds of small gravestones, which mark one 
of the dreariest places in the world, — a modern Egyptian 
cemetery. The soil is mere yellow, burning sand, without a 



EGYPT 



41 



flower, tree, or shrub to mitigate its desolation. Moreover, 
the tombs themselves are hideously plain, consisting of bricks 
loosely cemented together and surmounted by two sharp- 
pointed stones. What an added horror must death possess 
for people who look forward to a burial-place like this ! 

Beyond these desolate sepulchres, a long avenue of over- 
arching palm-trees leads us to the site of Heliopolis, that 
ancient City of the Sun, whose Hebrew name, On, is fre- 
quently mentioned in the Old Testament. The Temple of 
the Sun at Heliopolis was one of the most remarkable that 
Egypt ever possessed, and its priests were famed throughout 
the world for their learning. Magnificent presents were given 
to this sanctuary by Egyptian kings, and its staff of officials, 
priests, guardians, and servants is said to have numbered 
nearly thirteen thousand. Joseph married the daughter of a 
priest of Heliopolis, and here Moses, Pythagoras, Euclid, 
and Plato received instruction. Yet, on the plain once occu- 
pied by this great city, the only relic of it that remains is one 



majestic obelisk, 
est monument of 
ence. Its com- 
obelisks were al- 
pairs) was over- 
hundred years 



— the second old- 
its kind in exist- 
panion shaft (for 
ways placed in 
thrown eight 
ago, and now its 






/ i \ 




OBELISK OF HELIOPOLIS 



42 



EGYPT 



fragments are probably either buried in the vicinity beneath 
a mass of Nile deposit, or else form part of the foundation of 
some stately edifice in Cairo. The original beauty of this 




AVENUE NEAR CAIRO. 



granite monolith must have been striking, for down each of 
its four sides is a hieroglyphic hymn to the gods, the letters 
of which were formerly filled with gold, to liken it to the 
lustre of the sun, since obelisks were used as symbols of the 




o 

u 
o 



EGYPT 



45 



sun's bright rays. This City of the Sun was doubtless spe- 
cially adorned with these tapering shafts, but all the others 
have disap- 
peared. There 
is something 
indescribably 
mournful in 
this, the last 
memorial of 
Heliopolis, ga- 
zing, as it were, 
sadly down 
from its impo- 
sing height up- 
on the solitary 

plain, so eloquent in its pathetic silence. Moses, no doubt, 
looked upon this obelisk; Herodotus and Plato may have 
rested in its shadow. Yet upon its sculptured surface, morn- 
ing and evening, still fall the solar salutations, just as they 
did when Rome, Athens, and Jerusalem were the dwelling- 
places of barbarians. 




THE VIRGIN S TREE. 




PLOWING NEAR HELIOPOLIS. 



46 



EGYPT 



On the way back from Heliopolis to Cairo, one halts 
before a famous sycamore, known as the Virgin's Tree, since 
within its hollow trunk Mary and the Child Jesus are said to 
have taken refuge during the flight into Egypt. Tradition 
adds that they would surely have been captured by Herod's 
agents, had not a spider, after they had entered, covered the 
opening with its web, thus screening them from discovery. 
At the inauguration of the Suez Canal, in 1869, the cour- 
teous Khedive, 
Ismail Pasha, 
presented, of 
course in jest, 
this sacred tree 
to the Empress 
Eugenie to take 
back with her 
to France as a 
holy relic. It 
is said that the 
witty Empress 
thanked him 
gravely, but 
begged him to 

give her, instead, as a more portable and no less authentic 
souvenir, the skeleton of the spider that wove the web. 

In the yicinity of Cairo are several delightful drives, 
through avenues completely sheltered from the sun by stately 
sycamores and acacias. These are the fashionable prome- 
nades of the Egyptian capital, and one of them, called the 
Shoobra Avenue, is five miles long. Here, every afternoon 
during the tourist season, one sees in landaus and victorias 
numberless representatives of different parts of Europe and 
America, among whom freely mingle wealthy Turks, Arabs, 
and Egyptians, while not infrequently one catches a glimpse 




EGYPTIAN RUNNERS. 



EGYPT 



47 




AN EGYPTIAN WOMAN. 



of the Khedive himself or members 
of his family. It is a curiously cos- 
mopolitan sight, for in the throng of 
European carriages the fleet little 
donkeys of Egypt amble along, and 
gaily caparisoned camels sometimes 
thrust their heads disdainfully upon 
the scene and leer at the crowd. 

Here, also, one occasionally per- 
ceives a characteristic phase of Cai- 
rene life in the Nubian Sais, who runs 
before the horse or carriage of some rich pasha, and shouts 
for the way to be cleared. These runners, who are usually as 
black as ebony, carry wands in their hands, and wear colored 
turbans, gold-embroidered vests and jackets, and short white 
skirts, beneath which flash their naked limbs and feet. At 
frequent intervals we see an officer in handsome uniform, 
with silver-mounted weapons. These guardians of the peace 

will sometimes 
condescend to 
interfere and 
clear the crowd 
in case of an 
entanglement ; 
but usually they 
content them- 
selves with glar- 
ing fiercely at 
the Europeans, 
whom they seem 
to hate, or with 
posing as royal 
dignitaries in- 
sHooBRA PALACE. tcndcd for orna- 




48 



EGYPT 



ment, not for use. But great is the transformation which 
takes place in them, whenever the Khedive himself rides by. 
In an instant the scowling and disdainful officer becomes as 
fawning and obsequious as the veriest slave, and bends his 
head until the royal equipage is out of sight. He is a per- 
fect illustration of the treacherous servant, — indifferent or 
tyrannical to those unfortunate enough to be beneath him, 
— cringing and false to his superiors. 




MUSEUM AT CAIRO. 



At the end of the Shoobra Avenue is a charming palace of 
the same name, which is built around an artificial lake, with 
a marble fountain, resembling an island, in the centre. 

What an air of Oriental luxury we seem to breathe, as we 
stroll along these graceful porticoes! The pavement is of 
marble mosaic, the ceiling glows with brilliant frescoes, and 
between them rise, like the trunks of graceful palms, a multi- 
tude of slender Moorish columns, reminding one a little of 
the halls of the Alhambra. The Shoobra Palace was the 
favorite residence of Mehemet Ali, and even when his hair 




W 

CO 

W 
<! 

O 






/ 



EGYPT 



51 



and beard were white as snow, the fierce old warrior used to 
amuse himself here in the oddest fashion. Sitting cross- 
legged on a comfortable divan, he would watch for hours the 
adventures of the ladies of his harem, who were, at his com- 
mand, rowed out upon the lake in gaily colored boats by hid- 
eous black eunuchs. Suddenly, at a secret signal given by him- 
self, the boats would be upset and the fair occupants thrown 
into the water, to be dragged out amid the most ludicrous 
screams and struggles. At this sight, the old Viceroy would, 
it is said, put 
down his coffee- 
cup or pipe, loll 
back on his lux- 
urious cushions, 
and laugh until 
the tears rolled 
down his wrin- 
kled cheeks. 
Strange, is it 
not, that this 
grim veteran, 
stained with the 
blood of num- 
berless murdered Mamelukes, could have found pleasure in 
such childish sport? 

At a little distance from the city, on the new driveway 
to the Pyramids, stands the unrivaled museum of Egyptian 
antiquities, which a few years ago was transferred hither from 
the Cairene quarter known as Boulak. It is surrounded by a 
beautiful garden, within which is the tomb of Mariette, that 
self-denying and enthusiastic archaeologist who gave his life 
and fortune to Egyptian exploration, and whose untimely 
death, in 1881, was an irreparable loss to science. While it 
is literally true that he gave his life to Egypt, in return old 




TOMB OF MARIETTE. 



52 



EGYPT 



Egypt gave herself to him. For how magnificent was the 
success that rewarded his untiring devotion ! To have, him- 
self, discovered and rescued from their desert shroud thou- 
sands of statues, temples, tombs, and sphinxes, — thus bringing 
the beginnings of the recorded history of man within our easy 
comprehension, — no doubt abundantly repaid him for long 
years of labor and privation. But he had many personal 
experiences which must have wonderfully enriched his life. 
Thus, close by Memphis, Mariette discovered the famous' 
Serapeum, or Cemetery of the Sacred Bulls, all of which, 
after death, had been embalmed, and for a period of two 
thousand years had rested here in huge sarcophagi of gran- 
ite, — hidden away for ages under the desert sands. Each of 




\L SARCOPHAGI. 



the cofifins was a monolith weighing nearly sixty tons, and 
in these the embalmed bulls were laid away in separate com- 
partments in long subterranean galleries, which fill the visitor 
with amazement as he looks upon them. 



EGYPT 



53 



When Mariette opened this vast cemetery, he found one 
vault which for some reason had escaped the ruthless hands 
of those who, at some time, inspired by the hope of finding 
treasure, had plundered most of Egypt's sepulchres. Accord- 
ingly, when the portal yielded 
to his pressure, he perceived in 
the mortar the signet-impress 
of the mason who had closed it 
long before the time of Moses. 
There also, on a layer of sand, 
were the footprints of the work- 
men, who, nearly four thousand 
years before, had consigned the 
sacred mummy to its tomb and 
closed the door, as they sup- 
posed forever! What wonder, 
then, that when the great sa- 
vant found himself thus face to 
face with a stupendous past, 
within an area on which no eye 
had looked for nearly twice as long a period as had elapsed 
since Christ was born, he was completely overcome and burst 
into tears ! 

An entire lecture might be devoted to the mere enumer- 
ation of the interesting relics of the Pharaohs contained in 
this museum ; but some mention, at least, must be made 
of a celebrated statue which, though estimated to be at least 
four thousand years old, is even now so startlingly lifelike 
as to astonish all who look upon its face. Its preservation, 
too, is marvelous, considering that its material is wood. It 
represents a type of man still common in Egypt. In fact, 
when it was found, the Arabs were so struck with its resem- 
blance to their somewhat corpulent overseer, that they 
immediately called it the ''Village Chief," a title which it 




THE VILLAGE CHIEF. 



54 



EGYPT 



still retains. What impressed me most about this figure was 
the expression of its eyes. They fairly haunted me. It 
seemed as if a living being must dwell within that wooden 
form, to stare upon me so intently. This effect is due to the 
peculiar artifice employed in its construction. Thin folds of 
bronze were used for eyelids, beneath which were inserted, 
for the eyeballs, pieces of white quartz ; the iris was then 
made of a darker colored stone, while in the centre was 
driven, for the pupil, a silver nail. 

A few miles to the south of Cairo is the site of Memphis, 
probably the oldest city in Egypt, and the capital of Menes, 

first of Egypt's kings. We may gain 
some idea of its antiquity, when 
we reflect that it was founded, ac- 
cording to Lepsius, four thousand 
— according to Mariette, five thou- 
sand — years before Christ. It is 




PALMS NEAR MEMPHIS. 



said to have been so large that a half-day's journey was 
necessary to cross it from north to south; but little of it 
now remains above ground. A stately palm-grove covers 
this cradle of the Egyptian dynasties, and silence and soli- 




o 



EGYPT 



57 



tude reign here supreme. It is true, Mariette's heroic labors 
in this region brought to Hght more than two thousand buried 
sphinxes, and five thousand statues and tablet-inscriptions. 
But most of these have been taken away to European mu- 
seums, and al- 
most the only 
thing remaining 
here to-day is a 
colossal statue 
of Rameses II, 
too vast to be 
removed. This 
now lies pros- 
trate on its finely 
sculptured face, 
commingling 
slowly with his- 
toric dust. 

Never shall I 
forget an after- 
noon which I 
spent on the site 
of Memphis, seated within its stately palm-grove, on the 
border of the adjoining desert. Here, for the first time, I 
seemed to realize that I was in the land of the Pharaohs. 
The subtile influence of Egyptian antiquity stole insensibly 
upon me, until I seemed to have been carried back to the 
days of Abraham ; and the long trains of loaded camels, the 
turbaned Arabs, the half-veiled women, the tufted palm-trees, 
and the silent desert, ceased finally to fill me with astonish- 
ment, and seemed fitting accessories to the scene before me. 

While seated here that day, I watched for some time an 
Arab riding across the shining expanse of the desert, the 
soft, cushioned feet of his camel sinking into the sand with a 




THE SITE OF MEMPHIS. 



58 



EGYPT 




ARAB AT PRAYER. 



solemn, noiseless 
tread. It was the 
hour of prayer. 
Far off upon the 
minarets of Cairo 
the muezzins 
were proclaiming 
the sacred for- 
mula of Islam. 
Dismounting, the 
rider bound the 
foreleg of his 
camel, planted 
his lance beside 
him in the sand, 
and then, turning 
his face toward sacred Mecca, performed his devotions. As 
I watched him, I could but feel that we were in the grandest 
of all earthly temples, beside which Santa Sophia and St. 
Peter's dwin- 
dled to pyg- 
mies; for its 
golden pave- 
ment was the 
measureless 
sweep of the 
Sahara, — its 
dome, the can- 
opy of heaven. 
To a person 
floating in a 
balloon over 
Egypt, the 
country would 




STATUE OF RAMESES II. 



EGYPT 



59 




THE MAJESTIC NILE. 



present the ap- 
pearance of a 
long strip of 
green carpet 
spread out upon 
a sandy floor. 
For, as it seldom 
rains here, the 
entire country- 
would be a des- 
ert, were it not 
for the annual 
inundation of 
the Nile, which 
rescues from the 
sand on either side of the river a narrow fringe of territory; 
and both these river-banks, although hemmed in by scorching 
deserts, glow nevertheless with beauty and fertility because of 
the alluvial deposit of this fruitful overflow. 

The Nile is, in fact, the artery of Egypt, upon whose 
regular pulsa- 
tions the exist- 
ence of the land 
depends. The 
loam in the 
Egyptian Del- 
ta is that riv- 
er's sediment, 
brought in solu- 
tion from the 
heart of Africa. 
Thus Egypt is 
the gift of Ethi- 
opia. 




A NILE FARM. 



6o 



EGYPT 



Between the fertile valley, thus created and renewed, 
and the adjoining desert a ceaseless warfare is waged, — the 
old, eternal struggle between Life and Death. To the 
Egyptians this river represented the creative principle, just 
as the desert symbolized destruction. In the mythology of 
Egypt there is a pretty fable, to the effect that the crystal 
springs of the Nile bubble up in the gardens of Paradise and 
serve for the ablutions of angels. Thence, wandering through 




THE INUNDATION. 



lovely meadows, the infant stream finally expands into this 
lordly and majestic river, which offers life and plenty to the 
world. 

Within the arches of the Vatican there now reclines in 
Oriental calm an ancient statue of old Father Nile, leaning 
upon a miniature sphinx; while on its shoulders and around 
its limbs play sixteen pygmies, representing the sixteen cubits 
of the annual rise of the river. Surely it is not strange that 
the old Egyptians deified the Nile, to whose life-bringing 
flood they owed not only their sustenance, but the very 
soil on which they lived. Of all the rivers in the world this 



EGYPT 



6i 




A NATIVE RAFT. 



is the most extraordinary. Some of its characteristics seem 
almost supernatural. For the last fifteen hundred miles of 

its course, — 

that is to say, 
for nearly one 
half of its entire 
length, — it re- 
ceives no trib- 
utary whatever, 
but flows on 
calmly beneath 
a burning sun, 

and with a stony wilderness on either side. Yet, notwith- 
standing all its loss, not only by evaporation in that torrid 
atmosphere, but by the canals which lure Its fruitful flood to 
the right and left, by the absorption of its sandy banks, and 

finally by the 
draughts made 
upon it by the 
countless mouths 
of men and beasts 
from Nubia to 
the sea, it seems 
at last to pour 
into the Mediter- 
ranean a broader 
and more copi- 
ous stream than 
it displayed a 
thousand miles 
away ! Nor is 
this all. Ordi- 
narily an inundation causes calamity and inspires terror; but 
the overflow of the great river of Egypt is hailed with thanks- 




FATHER NILE. 



62 



EGYPT 



giving. Songs of rejoicing are heard along its rapidly disap- 
pearing banks, and its advancing waves are hailed as harbingers 
of peace and plenty. To the wretched fellaheen of Egypt, a 
few feet more or less of water in the rise of the Nile makes 
all the difference between abject poverty and comparative 
plenty; since, whenever the water-supply is scanty, the des- 
ert remorselessly advances, to swallow up the fields, where in 
good years luxuriant crops are wont to gladden the eye. 




NILE BRIDGK AT CAIRO. 



The Egyptian peasant would be not a little surprised to 
learn that we of the Occident depend for our vegetation upon 
water falling from the clouds. To him, who rarely sees a 
drop of rain, this would seem a very precarious mode of 
agriculture. The rise of water in the Upper Nile com- 
mences in the month of February. By March, it is percepti- 
ble at Khartoum, at Dongola in April, and. on the Delta in 
the month of May. It usually reaches its full height early in 
September, remains thus for a fortnight, and then gradually 



EGYPT 



65 



subsides. At its climax, — when the river has attained a height 
of about twenty-four feet above low water-level, — the valley 
looks like an archipelago studded with green islands, each of 
which is crowned with palm-trees and a little village. Then, 
when the waters subside, the country clothes itself at once in 
vegetation, and Mother Earth appears as young and beautiful 
as when the Pyramids first gazed upon the wondrous scene. 

No visit to Egypt is now complete which does not include 
a journey on the Nile, at least as far as the 

site of ancient '^ hundred- 1\ "^ gated" Thebes, six 

hundred miles inland from ^ fl V^ the Mediterranean. 
At present the tourist can /i r \ choose between two 




A DAHABIYEH. 



modes of travel on this river. One is by an excursion steamer, 
which involves a tour of several weeks with a promiscuous 
company; the other is by a 'Mahabiyeh," or private boat, 
where one selects his own companions and is entirely inde- 
pendent, — a dragoman furnishing food, servants, and crew for 
the entire journey. The great majority of Egyptian tourists 
take the steamer, which is certainly swift, well-managed, com- 
fortable, and less expensive than a private boat. On the other 



66 



EGYPT 



hand, if time 
and money are 
of no particu- 
lar considera- 
tion, and if one 
wishes to ar- 
range his visits 
to the different 
ruins of the Up- 
per Nile with 
greater freedom 
and with more 
seclusion than 
can be obtained 
if he is traveling 
by the schedule time of a crowded tourist-steamer, he would 
do well to take a dahabiyeh. Certainly those who love read- 
ing and tranquillity, and are interested in Egyptian history 
and antiquities, need not fear the longer duration of the 
journey occasioned by the use of a private boat. A fair 




A FLOATING HOME. 




PROMENADE OF THE HAREM. 



EGYPT 



67 




allowance being made for 
individual tastes and 
temperaments, I believe 
it to be a fact that upon 
no equal period of the 
traveler's life will he \ 

look back with more un- -^»._^^-«- 

alloyed enjoyment than 
upon the weeks or months 
passed in profound tran- 
quillity and delicious 
revery, gliding along the 
golden rim of the Sahara, 
which seems a well-nigh 
endless avenue leading him back through a mirage of myths 
and legends into the very dawn of history. What memories 




CLEOPATRA. 




ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. 



68 



EGYPT 




ON THE NILE. 



recur to him, as his boat cleaves the current of this ruin-bor- 
dered stream ! Its revelries, for example, — upon how many did 
^ V Egypt's cloud- 
less sun and lus- 
trous moon look 
down, when the 
most fascinating 
woman of anti- 
quity, — the ir- 
resistible siren 
of the Nile, — 
was wont to sail 
upon the surface 
of this same ma- 
jestic stream, accompanied by Antony, in a gilded barge whose 
perfumed sails swelled languidly with the breezes of the Orient. 
Little did they 
then anticipate 
the tragic death- 
scene that await- 
ed them when 
they should 
have drained to 
the dregs their 
golden goblet of 
life and love ! 

These and a 
hundred other 
incidents con- 
nected with 
Egyptian his- 
tory are, on a 
voyage like this, continually suggested to us by memory, 
reading, and conversation; and are all emphasized in a most 



'4 HHJ^^^^^^^ 


-& 




MMHl^Kkj '^'^■^fe - 


1 

1 


ti 


- -1 ^^^^1 






r 


?^^^^^H 





THE SCULPTURED LOTUS. 



EGYPT 



69 



charming and impressive way, whenever we land to inspect 
at various points the awe-inspiring relics of antiquity. "He 
who has once tasted the water of the Nile," says an Arab 
proverb, ''longs for it inexpressibly forevermore." 

It would exceed the scope of this volume to enumerate 
all the ruined temples which the tourist passes in sailing up 
the Nile. It is interesting, however, to observe that almost 
all the columns of these ancient shrines terminate in the 
sculptured bell of the lotus flower, — an ornament that gives 
lightness to these ponderous masses, and seems to be the 




->"->v^ '5-&t?0<t^ 




M I 



appropriate coronation of the columnar stem. Many of these 
chiseled lotus blossoms are just as perfect now as when they 
left the sculptor's hand; and even when mutilated by some 
vandal, their broken edges look like the crumpled petals of a 
flower, still blooming on from century to century. It is fit- 
ting that we should see Egypt's favorite blossom represented 
in her temples, for the poets of antiquity sang of the far- 
famed lotus that grew on the banks of the Nile, and claimed 
that if the traveler ate of it he at once forgot home and kin- 
dred, and lingered ever on this distant shore. 

Next to the region of the Pyramids and Sphinx, the most 
attractive part of Egypt is the site of Thebes, the principal 



70 



EGYPT 



destination of all travelers who ascend the Nile. More than 
four thousand years ago there lay here, as there lies to-day, 
a mighty plain, cut by the Nile into two equal parts. Upon 
this plain was an Egyptian city that must have been to the 

ancient world 
what Rome 
was in the days 
of Hadrian. It 
so abounded 
in stupendous 
palaces and 
temples, that 
even their ruins 
are to-day the 
marvel of the 
world, and 
draw to them 
admiring trav- 
elers from ev- 
ery land. One 

of the most extraordinary of these structures is the temple 
built by Rameses II, which was a ruin long before most of 
the other ancient edifices of the world were reared. It was 
demolished by the Persian conqueror, Cambyses, six centuries 
before Christ, and only a few of its enormous columns are 
now standing, though everywhere we see the pedestals of 
many more. Some of its walls were supported by massive 
statues thirty feet in height, which are now headless and 
otherwise disfigured ; and yet their folded arms still give to 
them an air of grandeur and mystery, as if they were guard- 
ing faithfully in their locked breasts the secrets of unnum- 
bered ages. 

Beside these standing giants, however, lies one whose 
mere fragments dwarf them all. It is the overthrown statue 




TEMPLE OF RAMESES. 




RAISING WATER FROM THE NILE. 



EGYPT 



73 



of King Rameses, the largest sculptured figure in the world. 
This monster, once a solid block of beautifully polished gran- 
ite, measures twenty-six feet across the shoulders, and its 
weight, when entire, must have been nearly nine hundred 
tons. Yet it was transported hither over a distance of one 
hundred and fifty miles. It is alike difficult to understand 
how such a colossus could have been quarried, brought hither, 
or broken, as we now find it. An earthquake could hardly 
have shattered it so completely. Such devastation could 
only have been effected by the vandalism of man. Upon its 
surface were inscribed the words — ' ' I am the king of kings. 
If any one wishes to know how great I am, let him try to 
surpass one of my works." But now, like Lucifer hurled 
from Heaven, the mighty Rameses lies overthrown, and sev- 
eral millstones 



have been cut 
from his head, 
without percep- 
tibly diminish- 
ing the size. 

A visit to 
another portion 
of the Theban 
city revealed to 
us the two co- 
lossal figures 
which photo- 
graphic art has 
made familiar to 
the world. They 
are both sadly mutilated, but seated as they are, and have 
been for so many ages, in solitude and silence on this his- 
toric plain, they look like the abandoned deities of the place, 
whom grief has turned to stone. They do not, however, 




THE OVERTHROWN STATUE. 



74 



EGYPT 




THE VOCAL MEMNON. 



really represent deities ; they 
are the statues of King Am- 
unoph III, and were originally 
placed here before the entrance 
of his temple. Each of these 
figures is a monolith, fifty-two 
feet in height without the ped- 
estal, and weighs about eight 
hundred tons! It is true, they 
do not look like monoliths now, 
for one can see a multitude of 
different blocks composing their 
arms and shoulders. But both 
were solid masses of stone till 
they were riven by an earth- 
quake shock twenty-seven years 
before Christ ; and two hundred years later, the Roman Em- 
peror Septimius Severus clumsily restored them. This fact of 

their restoration 

explains the 
mystery of the 
voice which the 
more northern 
of these colossi, 
called by the 
Greeks the "Vo- 
cal Memnon," 
was believed to 
possess, since 
every morning, 
at sunrise, there 
would issue from 
it a peculiar 
sound, which 




THE COLOSSI OF THEBES. 



EGYPT 



75 




A DERVISH DRUM. 



was interpreted as being a salutation 
to the god of day. In the early years 
of the Christian era this was deemed 
so wonderful that Greek and Roman 
travelers made a journey up the Nile 
to look upon this statue and to hear 
its 'Voice," with almost as much 
interest as they felt in visiting the 
Pyramids and the Sphinx. 

For many years the usual ex- 
planation of this phenomenon was 
that of fraud. It was supposed that 
a priest concealed himself in the 
statue, and at sunrise, by striking 
the stone with a metallic hammer, produced the sound which 
awed into amazement the worshipers of old. But, on the 
other hand it seems incredible that for two hundred years 
priests could climb into this statue every night and climb 
down again every day, and never be discovered. Obviously, 
this colossus could not, like a chess automaton, be rolled away 
occasionally from the stage, for it stood out boldly on the 
plain, and could be watched continually by thousands. Nor 
was its voice immemorial. The statue had stood here for 
fifteen hundred years before it be- ^.., came 

vocal. It was only after its in- 
jury by the earthquake that 
its voice began to be heard. 
It then continued musical / 
for two hundred and twenty 
years ; but as soon as it was 
repaired by the Roman em- 
peror, — that is, as soon as its 
crevices were filled with stone 
and plaster, — it became dumb 



\ 




AN EGYPTIAN HEAD- DRESS. 



;6 



EGYPT 



agaiiij and has Remained so ever since. It would seem con- 
clusive, therefore, that the mysterious sound which puzzled 
all antiquity, was due to the warmth of the rising sun acting 
on the mass of cracked and sundered stone, which had been 
thoroughly chilled and moistened with dew during the night, 
— a fact not without a parallel in some peculiar rock forma- 
tions of the world. 
On the opposite 
bank of the Nile 
to that on which 
the Vocal Memnon 
and his comrade 
sit alone, stands 
the most wonder- 




ful of all the edi- 
fices of old Thebes, 
the temple of Kar- 
nak. It forms, in 
fact (with the ex- 
ception of the Pyr- 
amids), the largest 
and most imposing 
ruin, not only in 
Egypt, but in the world. The approach to this was formerly 
by an avenue nearly two miles long, lined with at least two 
thousand colossal sphinxes, crouching side by side, fragments 
of which are still discernible. Between them, so long ago as 
the time of Joseph, passed with reverent tread unnumbered 
worshipers, who must have been overwhelmed with awe by 



Ari'KOACH TO KARNAK. 



EGYPT 



79 



the grandeur of this unrivaled vestibule. To-day Arab beg- 
gars sun themselves here in the sand. Some one has said 
that it is fortunate for these sphinxes that they are beheaded, 
since they are spared the sight of the temple's degradation. 
Beyond them one perceives, from a great distance, a solitary 
portal. Beneath it giants might have passed, for it is seventy 




WILD CONFUSION." 



feet in height. Compared to it, a man appears to be a pygmy. 
Time seems to have favored certain portions of this ruined 
shrine, and this is one of them ; for, preserved in the wonder- 
fully clear atmosphere of Egypt and the unvarying sunshine 
of the Nile, it stands at present in its stately beauty almost 
as perfect as when its lofty arch resounded to the murmur of 
adoring thousands. 



8o 



EGYPT 




IN KARNAK. 



Passing through this 
gigantic outer gate, we 
paused with bated breath 
before a gHmpse of Kar- 
nak itself. Who can ever 
forget his first view of 
this temple, whose walls 
are eighty feet in height, 
some of whose towers 
reach an altitude of one 
hundred and forty feet, 
and whose vast area is a 
mile and a half in cir- 
cumference? Before us 
was a wild confusion of 
mammoth columns, Cy- 
clopean walls, and towering obelisks. It seemed to be a 
ruined city, rather than a temple, reduced to chaos by an 
earthquake. One feels that he is standing here upon a bat- 
tlefield, where 
Time has strug- 
gled with the 
products of hu- 
man genius. 
With whom 
the victory has 
rested, the mu- 
tilated remains 
upon the plain 
significantly 
prove. 

Making our 
way through 
this bewildering 







EGYPT 



8i 



labyrinth, we approached one of the smaller avenues of Kar- 
nak. How well preserved the columns are! And yet in point 
of age they are as far removed in one direction from the birth 
of Christ, as we are in the other. Despite their history of four 
thousand years, these columns wear no ivied wreaths of age, and 
had not the ruthless hands of iconoclasts been raised against 
them, they would doubtless have remained intact to the pres- 
ent day. One realizes here that the Egyptians built their 




A BIT OF KARNAK. 



temples, not for centuries, but for ages. In fact, one of the 
inscriptions on these walls states that the king Rameses con- 
fidently counts upon the gods for help, because he has reared 
to them ''eternal mountains." 

The columns, first met with as one approaches Karnak, 
enormous though they are, sink to comparative insignifi- 
cance, when we enter the main avenue of the temple. No 
illustrations or statistics can give an adequate idea of the 
majesty of such architecture as this. Yet in one hall alone 
are no less than a hundred and thirty-four columns, some of 



82 



EGYPT 



which are thirty-six feet in circumference and sixty-six feet 
high, while many of the sohd blocks which they support are 
forty feet in length. The lotus flowers which crown them 
are so vast that twelve men can, with outstretched arms, and 
hands pressed finger-tip to finger-tip, barely enclose one of 
their curving lips. What wonder that the Arabs declared 
that the ancient Egyptians were giants, who had the power 

of moving at 
will Cyclopean 
masses of stone, 
as by the mere 
stroke of the en- 
chanter's wand? 
On entering 
another shad- 
owy aisle of Kar- 
nak, we found 
that conquerors 
had sought to 
overthrow some 
of these mighty 
pillars. In sev- 
eral instances 
the miscreant 
vand al s were 
successful; but 
one huge shaft 
refused to fall, and, although started 
from its foundation, it leans against its neighbor (one fancies 
wearily and painfully), as though it were a giant's dislocated 
limb. However, we can safely walk beneath this leaning column, 
for it has been thus deflected since before the time of Christ. 
Soulless indeed must be the traveler who can walk among 
the ruins of Karnak without emotions too profound for words. 




ETERNAL MOUNTAINS. 



EGYPT 



83 




A CORRIDOR. 



In the whole world there is no 
temple that can be even re- 
motely compared to it. It 
must have been even more im- 
pressive, when its vast aisles 
were covered with a roof, 
which, if we may judge from 
other Egyptian ceilings that 
remain, was probably painted 
a deep blue, to represent the 
cloudless sky of Egypt, and 
glittered with a thousand 
golden stars. Even now the 
daylight, streaming down 
through this forest of col- 
umns, reveals to us pictorial 
carvings twenty feet in height, with a multitude of sacred 
characters, cut several inches deep into the solid stone, each 

letter polished 
to its entire 
depth and col- 
ored like mo- 
saic. These are 
not fanciful and 
meaningless 
decorations, but 
hymns of praise 
to kings and 
gods, as per- 
fectly compre- 
hended in those 
times as Latin 
sentences are 
to-day. 




THE LEANING COLUMN. 



84 



EGYPT 



Until 1799, Egyptian hieroglyphics were a mystery, but 
at the close of the eighteenth century these sacred writings 
of past ages were made plain by the discovery of a tablet of 
black basalt (called the '' Rosetta Stone" after the town near 
which it was found), which was dug out of the soil of the 
Delta. Upon this stone, which is about four feet in height, 
was inscribed in three languages a decree issued by the Egyp- 
tian priesthood at Memphis, about two hundred years before 

Christ. One of these lan- 
IjfK guages was Greek, the 

other two were, respect- 
ively, the priestly and 
the popular writing of 
the Egyptians. By a 
comparison of the known 
Greek with the unknown 
Egyptian characters, a 
key was found by which 
to decipher the priestly 
symbols of the Pharaohs. 
To Champollion, the dis- 
tinguished French lin- 
guist, is due unstinted 
praise for this great 
work, without which the reading of the monuments of ancient 
Egypt and even the comprehension of Egyptian history would 
have been impossible. As is well known, the Rosetta Stone 
now forms one of the most valued treasures of the British 
Museum. 

Time, the destroyer, can apparently lay no hand on 
sculptures such as these. They still remain, and will no 
doubt remain for centuries to come, illumined tablets of his- 
tory, as perfect as when they were beheld through clouds 
of incense by the assembled worshipers of old. 




THE ROSETTA STONE. 



EGYPT 



85 



In strolling through the immense area of Karnak's ruins, 
we frequently discovered stately obelisks which were hewn 
from the primitive volcanic granite nearly forty centuries 
ago. One of these, which, as the inscription tells us, was 
once surmounted by a little pyramid of gold, is ninety-two 




OBELISKS AT KARNAK. 



feet high and eight feet square. Some of these monoliths 
are prostrate, while others are erect ; but whether prone or 
perpendicular, amid these wonderful surroundings, and with 
the secrets of past ages graven on their sides, they are unusu- 
ally impressive memorials of the heroes of the past, and 

" Like a right-arm lifted towards the sky, 
Each obelisk makes oath their memory sliall not die." 



86 



EGYPT 



Though Karnak is the most stupendous ruin of Upper 
Egypt, by far the loveHest is the island of Philae, encircled 
by the glittering Nile. It is an uninhabited island now, only 
twelve hundred feet in length and five hundred in breadth, 




but the memories it awakens are like precious jewels in a 
tiny casket, — ''infinite riches in a little room." This ''Pearl 
of the Nile," as it is called, now fringed with palms and 
crowned with ruined temples, was formerly sacred to the god- 
dess Isis, the mightiest of the Egyptian Trinity; and here 
her worship was continued secretly, long after the decrees 
of Christian emperors had elsewhere abolished the old faith 
of Egypt. 

For centuries before that time, however, the templed isle 
of Isis was the resort of countless travelers and pilgrims, by 
whom it was as much revered as is the Holy Sepulchre at 
Jerusalem by the majority of Christians to-day; for this was 



EGYPT 



87 



supposed to be the burial-place of Osiris, the husband of Isis; 
and the most sacred oath of the Egyptians was the phrase, 
"By him who sleeps in Philae." 

At one extremity of this island is an exquisite little struc- 
ture known as "Pharaoh's Bed." It is difficult to imagine 
anything architecturally more beautiful than this graceful 
pavilion, outlined against the glorious blue sky of Upper 
Egypt. It is not, however, very ancient, as things go in 
Egypt, having been built by the Roman emperor Tibe- 
rius, about the time of Christ. How 

Egypt dwarfs all lands 
ruins which we have pre- 
viously called ancient ! 
In Britain we survey ' 
with wonder its old 
cathedrals, built six ^^^ 



and 




cen- 

turies 

ago; in Italy 

we are thrilled by 

scenes reminding us 

of Roman life and 

customs eighteen 

hundred years since; 

in Athens we go 

back still farther. 

But here upon the changeless Nile, when once accustomed 

to its antiquity, we find ourselves exclaiming lightly: 

"Oh, this is merely Greek," or "That is as modern as the 

aesars. 



Pharaoh's bed 



88 EGYPT 

If the island of Philae is beautiful by day, by night it has 
a fascination almost beyond the power of language to 
describe. For when the moon threads these deserted ave- 
nues with silver sandals; holding her pale light, here and 
there, for us to note these sculptured chronicles of kings, 




PHIL>E BY MOONLIGHT. 



beautiful Philae rises once more in its splendor, its sculptures 
speaking to us of the vanished Isis and Osiris, in that mys- 
terious language of dead ages whose books were the temples 
of the gods, the leaves of which were blocks of stone. 

Most tourists on the Nile are content to go no farther 
than the first cataract and Philae; but those who journey still 
farther southward into Nubia are abundantly repaid by one 



EGYPT 



91 



of the most awe-inspiring of Egyptian ruins, — the temple of 
Abou-Simbel. This edifice, which is cut for a distance of 
three hundred feet into the rocky hillside by the river, is now 
half-buried in drifts of shining sand. Beside it are four 
statues of Rameses II, of such prodigious size, that the huge 
door, although enormous in itself, seems small beside them. 
This portal conducts the traveler into a subterranean hall, 
where are still other monster statues, waiting with folded 

arms through 
the slow-moving 
centuries, like 
captive giants 
whom only a ter- 
rific earthquake 
shock can liber- 
ate. Torchlight 
reveals an altar 
where sacrifices 
were offered to 
the gods more 
than three thou- 
sand years ago. 

One of the 
exterior statues 




ABOU-SIMBEL. 



is mutilated beyond recognition, but all of them represented 
the same monarch. The position of the hands on the knees 
is characteristic of most royal Egyptian statues, and is sym- 
bolic of Rameses resting after his conquest of the then known 
world. It is not strange that the Egyptians gave to him the 
title, ''King of Kings," for he was really the greatest con- 
queror of antiquity, prior to the era of Greece and Rome. 
He was apparently a favorite of fortune, living to the age of 
eighty-seven, and ruling Egypt for no less than sixty-seven 
years. It was his passion to erect magnificent temples, and 



92 



EGYPT 



place in front of theni some of those obelisks and statues 
which, after all they have survived, are still the marvel of 
the world. Nor were these ornamental works the only mon- 
uments which Rameses bequeathed to Egypt, for he caused 
the stony desert to be pierced in various places with artesian 
wells; he finished a canal connecting the Mediterranean and 
the Red Sea, more than three thousand years before De Les- 

seps followed in his foot- 
*> r steps; while, as a warrior, 

he had conquered Syria 
and seized upon the for- 
tress of Jerusalemx more 
than a hundred years be- 
fore the Israelites (led out 
from Egypt during the 
reign of his successor) set 
foot upon the soil of Pal- 
estine. 

But to appreciate ade- 
quately the vastness of 
these statues at Abou- 
Simbel, we should exam- 
ine them singly. Each is 
no less than sixty-six feet 
high, and its forefinger is 
a yard in length. If the 
figure stood erect, it would 
reach an altitude of nearly eighty-three feet. A group of 
travelers standing on its lap looks like a swarm of insects 
resting on its surface. The lower half of the leg measures 
twenty feet from knee to heel. The destruction of one of 
these statues was effected more than two thousand years ago 
by foreign conquerors; but what a comment upon human 
nature it is, that such sublime monuments, after enduring 




A NUBIAN WOMAN. 



EGYPT 



93 




A CONTRAST. 



for so many ages, should 
now, without the excuse 
of foreign conquest, be 
disgracefully mutilated 
by modern travelers, who 
(itching for notoriety) 
have placed upon these 
ruins their names, and 
those of the towns un- 
fortunate enough to be 
their birthplaces. Some 
of these carvings, in let- 
ters a foot in length, have 
been actually filled in 
with paint ! A few years 
ago a traveler took a plas- 
ter cast of one of the heads, and left it besmeared with white- 
wash, which he had not the decency to efface. Alas! ahuost 

all of Egypt's 
unique treasures 
have suffered 
from the wanton 
depredations of 
man. Not long 
ago a party of 
tourists visited 
the grand old 
obelisk at Heli- 
opolis, which was 
already ancient 
when Abraham 
made his jour- 
ney into Egypt, 
and were found 




PART OF ONE STATUE. 



94 



EGYPT 



knocking pieces out of it with an axe ! When one hears of 
such vandaHsm, one can agree with Douglas Jerrold, who, 
while arguing that every kind of business had its pleasant side, 
remarked: ''If I were an undertaker, I know of several per- 
sons whom I could work for with considerable satisfaction." 




THE STATUES OF RAMESES II. 



The most impressive view of Abou-Simbel is that which 
reveals these seated statues from a distance, in profile. 
Gigantic as their features are, they nevertheless possess a 
serene, majestic beauty, which becomes marvelous when we 
reflect that these colossal figures were hewn directly from the 
face of the mountain. Surely such forms and features, cut 
thus from the natural rock, were the work of men whose 



EGYPT 



95 



genius was akin 
to that of Mi- 
chael Angelo. 
There was to 
me something 
indescribably 
weird and un- 
earthly in their 
solemn faces 
forever gazing 
at the river, 
with an expres- 
sion which has 
not changed 
while ages have 
flowed on be- 
neath them, like the stream itself. They look as if they had 
the power to rise, if they desired, and tell us of the awful 
mysteries on which their lips are sealed. 

Notwithstanding the marvelous character of the ruins of 
the Upper Nile, nothing in Egypt so appeals to our imagina- 
tion and enthusiasm as those incomparable memorials of the 




BEDOUINS AT THE PVKAMIDS. 




APPROACH TO THE PYRAMIDS. 



96 



EGYPT 



Pharaohs, — the Pyramids and Sphinx. They are easily 
accessible from Cairo, as a fine carriage-road now leads 
almost to their base. On my first visit to them, more than a 
score of years ago, the Arabs who infest their vicinity were 
by no means as well disci] 
sooner had we reached the e( 




SECTION OF A PYRAMID. 



assailed by numbers of vociferous Bedouins, who, in their 
long white gowns, resembled African somnambulists. All 
clamored fiercely for the privilege of conducting us to 
the summit of the Great. Pyramid; but our guide treated 
them with indifference, until we were surrounded by perhaps 
sixty men, who shouted and gesticulated as if they were 



EGYPT 



97 



demented. Then he called upon the chief of these madmen 
to appoint two for each of us. This was finally done amid 
the wildest confusion. The rejected men acted Hke petulant 
children, lying down in the sand, throwing it into the air, 
howling, and doing other fooHsh acts indicative of their 
chagrin. 

At length, the disappointed ones, seeing a new party 
of travelers approach, started off like a troop of wild beasts 
to meet them, thus giving 
us an opportunity to look 
up quietly at the prodig- 
ious structures, which are 
apparently destined to per- 
ish only with the world. 

No view does justice to 
the Pyramids, but the world 
contains nothing of human 
workmanship quite so im- 
posing. They stand upon 
the border of the desert, as 
other ruins lie beside the 
sea. Their vast triangular 
forms, with bases covered 
by the golden sand, and 
summits cleaving wedge- 
like the serene blue sky, exceed, when seen thus close at hand, 
the most extravagant expectations. A comprehensive idea can 
not be obtained from statistics, but one must make use of 
figures and comparisons to give to those who have not seen 
them some adequate conception of the immensity of these 
masses of stone. The original height of the Pyramid of Cheops 
was four hundred and eighty-two feet. About thirty feet of 
its apex has disappeared, but even now it is higher than the 
top of St. Peter's; and if this pyramid were hollow, the vast 




A CORNER OF CHEOPS. 



98 



EGYPT 



basilica at Rome could be placed within it, dome and all, like 
an ornament in a glass case! St. Paul's in London could 
then in turn be easily placed inside of St. Peter's, for the top 
of its dome is one hundred feet lower than the summit of the 
Great Pyramid. Each of its sides measures at the base seven 

hundred and 
sixty-four feet. 
If its materials 
were torn down, 
they would suf- 
fice to build 
around the 
whole frontier 
of France a 
parapet ten feet 
high and a foot 
and a half thick. 
Think of a field 
of thirteen acres 
completely 
covered with 
eighty-five mil- 
lion cubic feet 
of solid ma- 
sonry, piled 
together with 
such precision 
and accuracy 
that astronomical calculations have been based on its angles 
and shadows, since the mighty pile was built exactly facing 
the cardinal points of the compass ! This solidity of structure 
and immensity of mass would seem to assure to the Pyramids 
a well-nigh endless existence. ''All things," it is said, ''fear 
Time, but Time fears the Pyramids." 




AN EGYPTIAN SHEIK. 



EGYPT 



lOI 




<.V-t:"r« 



PYRAMID OF CliPHKEN. 



Among the 
various conflict- 
ing theories re- 
garding the ori- 
gin and mean- 
ing of tlie Great 
Pyramid, one 
thing may cer- 
tainly be af- 
firmed : its royal 
builder did not 
intend to have 

it used as a gymnasium by tourists, though scores of them 
ascend it every day. The difficulty in climbing it is owing 
to the height of the steps to be taken, varying as they do 
from two to four feet, according to the broken or perfect 
condition of the stone. In ascending it, I made my two 
Arab attendants fully earn their money. Giving a hand to 

each, and stipu- 
lating that we 
should go slow- 
ly, I was pulled 
quite comfort- 
ably to the top 
of Cheops in 
about fifteen 
minutes, and 
found the sum- 
mit to be at pres- 
ent a rocky plat- 
form about thir- 
ty feet square. 
One should not 
grumble, how- 




THE CASE OF CHEOI'S. 



I02 



EGYPT 




ever, at the difficulty of making this ascent, for it is owing to 
their broken surfaces that one is able to climb the Pyramids at 
all. On near approach they seem like gigantic flights of stairs. 
But originally each presented a perfectly smooth exterior, the 

spaces between 
the steps being 
filled with stone 
blocks, fitted 
with the utmost 
nicety. The 
whole pyramid 
was then cov- 
ered with ce- 
ment and beau- 
tifully polished. 
In fact, the sec- 
ond largest pyr- 
amid, Cephren, 
— almost a rival 
of Cheops, — 
has still around its apex a remnant of the polished coating, 
which makes it very difficult to reach the summit. Centuries 
ago, however, most of these covering blocks were carried off 
to build the mosques and palaces of Cairo. 

What was the purpose in erecting these structures? Are 
they simply monuments of national or royal vanity? Are 
they memorials of Egyptian victories or conquests? Not at 
all. Incredible as it may seem, they are merely the colossal 
sepulchres of kings — the most enormous ever reared by man. 
It was customary to build pyramids here as late as the time 
of Abraham, twenty-three hundred years before Christ; but, at 
a subsequent period, when the capital of the Pharaohs had been 
transferred from Memphis up the Nile to Thebes, rock-hewn 
sepulchres seem to have been preferred. Cheops is not the 



A^.^ 



P^■RA.^11D OF SAKKARAH. 



EGYPT 



103 



oldest of Egyptian pyramids. That of Sakkarah, a few miles 
away, probably antedates it by five hundred years. The 
whole region for more than forty miles is honeycombed with 
sepulchres, and it was all the cemetery of Mem_phis, — that 
splendid capital whose tombs have long outlived its palaces 
and temples. 

The graves in this vast necropolis, including the pyramids, 
are, like the tombs at Thebes, all found on the west bank of 
the Nile, — the side associated with those emblems of mor- 
tality, the desert and the setting sun. It is a solemn fact, 
therefore, that what remains to us of ancient Egypt has to 
do with death, not life, and was constructed with reference 
not to time but to eternity. The palaces and capitals of 
Egypt's kings have almost vanished from the earth; even 
their sites are 
often matters of 
conjecture; but 
the stupendous 
temples of the 
gods, the rock- 
hewn tombs, and 
the long line of 
giant sepulchres 
built in the form 
of pyramids, 
still survive, to 
emphasize the 
triumph of the 
eternal over the 
temporal. 

The Greeks rightly said of the Egyptians, that they 
looked upon their earthly dwelling as a kind of inn, but upon 
the grave as their eternal home. In fact, they did make far 
more elaborate preparations for death than for life. Each 




EGYPTIAN FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 



I04 



EGYPT 



of the Pharaohs, 
as soon as he 
ascended the 
throne, began 
to build his 
mausoleum (us- 
ually in pyram- 
idal form), and 
from his neigh- 
boring pal- 
ace in ]M e m - 
phis proudly 
watched its 
progress and 
embellishment. 
The pyramid of 
Cheops is not, therefore, as some have ingeniously argued, 
entirely different from the rest, — a structure built by inspi- 
ration of God, and intended to preserve for the race a perfect 
standard of measurement, or to prophesy by a certain number 
of inches the year of the world's destruction. There is no 
reason to doubt that it is the mausoleum of one of a long 
line of monarchs, all of whom erected similar, though smaller, 
tombs. It seems, indeed, too vast to be a casket for one 
human body; yet that same body, when alive, had power to 
order such a. structure to be built, and doubtless thought it 
none too massive and imposing for his sepulchre. 

The summit of Cheops affords a view unequaled in the 
world. Hundreds of miles to the westward stretches the 




FVKAMID OF CHEOPS. 




THE SAHARA. 



EGYPT 



105 



vast Sahara, scattering its first golden sands at the very base 
of the pyramids. It is an awful sight from its dreary immen- 
sity. With its rolling waves of sand it seems a petrified 
ocean suddenly transformed from a state of activity into one 
of eternal rest. Far away, upon its yellow surface, the sun- 
lit tents of a Bedouin encampment glisten like whitecaps on 
a rolling sea. In truth, this vast Sahara is an ocean — of 
sand. It has the same succession of limitless horizons and 
the same dreary monotony. Dromedaries glide over its sand 
waves, — true ''ships of the desert," as they are called. 




SHIPS OF THE DESERT. 



Along its sunlit surface caravans come and go like fleets of 
commerce. Finally, like the ocean, it is often lashed by 
storms which sweep it with resistless force, raising its tawny 
waves to blind, overwhelm, and suffocate the wretched traveler 
who may encounter them, until he falls, coffined only in the 
shroud of sand woven around him by the pitiless storm-king. 
On my last visit to Egypt, this solemn area of antiquity 
was spoiled for me in the daytime by the great crowd, of 
travelers assembled in and about the hotel recently built 
almost within the shadow of the Pyramids. Serious contem- 
plation and a true appreciation of these monuments arc quite 
impossible in a place where one or two hundred polyglot 



io6 



EGYPT 



guests are eating lunch,, enlivened by the strains of Strauss' 
waltzes. It is the most glaring illustration of bad taste and 
mercenary greed that I have ever seen ; and if the rest of 
Egypt were disfigured by such scandalous anachronisms, I 
should not wish ever again to set foot on its soil. Accord- 
ingly, my only satisfactory visit to the Pyramids and Sphinx, 
under the present condition of affairs in Egypt, was made at 
midnight and by moonlight. Then, with but one companion, 

and freed alike 
from crowds of 
noisy tourists 
and importunate 
Bedouins, and 
lighted only by 
the moon and 
stars, I spent 
four memorable 
hours beside 
these architect- 
ural mementoes 
of a vanished 
race, until the 
radiance of the 
dawn stole up 
the eastern sky and flushed the face of the expectant Sphinx. 
When standing on the summit of the Great Pyramid, if 
we look below us, we see what seems to be an immense, 
yawning grave. It is the temple of the Sphinx, partly 
exhumed by Mariette from the desert sands. Within it werS 
discovered nine statues of King Cephren, the builder of the 
second pyramid. From this circumstance it is probable that 
he was its founder, and from its situation in the Necropolis 
of Memphis we may conclude that this shrine was used for 
funeral ceremonies. But now it is itself half-sepulchred in 




TEMPLE OF THE SPHINX. 




THE SPHINX. 



EGYPT 



109 



the mighty desert. Its altars are abandoned ; the feet of 
thousands no longer tread its pavement; and if its epitaph 
could be traced above it in the shifting sand, it might appro- 
priately read: ''All who tread the globe are but a handful to 
the tribes that slumber in its bosom." ^ 

What thrills one as he stands upon the soil of Egypt — 
rich beyond computation with the spoils of time, — is the mys- 
terious conception that it gives 
of all the unknown Past which 
must have here preceded Mem- 
phis and the Pyramids. The 
progress of the race in different 
lands from barbarism to a state 
of advanced civilization, has 
always been a slow and painful 
one. Unless the Egyptians, 
therefore, were a notable ex- 
ception to this rule, they must 
have existed here for tens of 
centuries before attaining the 
degree of culture which was 
evidently theirs more than six 
thousand years ago. From 
manuscripts discovered in their 
tombs and temples, we learn 
that every kind of literature, save the dramatic, was composed 
by them. Astronomy, philosophy, religion, architecture, 
sculpture, painting, imposing rituals for the dead, a learned 
priesthood and elaborate systems of theology, society, and 
government then flourished in the valley of the Nile, and 
prove the existence of a still earlier civilization, of which we 
know, and shall probably continue to know, absolutely nothing. 

*The famous archaeologist, Maspero. recently said: " Egypt is far from being exhausted. Its 
soil contains enough to occupy twenty centuries of workers; for what has come to light is compar- 
atively nothing." 




DATE PALM. 



no 



EGYPT 



Close by the temple is the Sphinx itself, crouching in 
silence by the sea of sand, as if to guard the royal mauso- 
leums. This monster, whose human head and lion's body 
typified a union of intelligence and strength, was hewn out of 
the natural rock on the edge of the desert, and only in places 




SPHINX AND PYRAMID. 



where the stone could not adapt itself to the desired form was 
it pieced out with masonry. From the crown of its head to 
the paved platform on which rest its outspread paws, it meas- 
ures sixty-four feet. The sand has long since encroached 
upon this space, but formerly it was kept free from all incur- 
sions of the desert, and between its huge limbs stood an altar 



EGYPT 



I II 



dedicated to the Rising Sun, before which must have knelt 
unnumbered thousands of adoring worshipers. 

To-day the Sphinx appears as cahn and imperturbable as 
it did six thousand years ago. It is probably the oldest relic 
of human workmanship that the world knows — the silent wit- 
ness of the greatest fortunes and the greatest calamities of 
time. Its eyes, wide open and fixed, have gazed dreamily out 
over the drifting sands, while empires, dynasties, religions, 
and entire races have risen and passed away. If its stony 
lips could speak, they might truthfully utter the words 
*' Before Abraham was, I am." It was, indeed, probably 
two thousand years old when Abraham was born. 

It is the antiquity of the Sphinx which thrills us as we 
look upon it, for in itself it has no charms. The desert's 
waves have risen to its breast, as if to wrap the monster in a 
winding-sheet of gold. The face and head have been muti- 
lated by Moslem fanatics. The mouth, the beauty of whose 
lips was once admired, is now expressionless. Yet grand in 
its loneliness, — veiled in the mystery of unnumbered ages, — 
this relic of Egyptian antiquity stands solemn and silent in 
the presence of the awful desert — symbol of eternity. Here 
it disputes with Time the empire of the past ; forever gazing 
on and on into a future which will still be distant when we, 
like all who have preceded us and looked upon its face, have 
lived our little lives and disappeared. 

O sleepless Sphinx! 
Thy sadly patient eyes, 
Thus mutely gazing o'er the shifting sands, 

Have watched earth's countless dynasties arise, 
Stalk forth like spectres waving gory hands, 
Then fade away with scarce a lasting trace 
To mark the secret of their dwelling-place: 
O sleepless Sphinx! 



112 EGYPT 

O changeless Sphinx! 
In the fair dawn of time 
So grandly sculptured from the living rock ; 

Still bears thy face its primal look sublime, 
Surviving all the hoary ages' shock; 

Still art thou royal in thy proud repose 
As when the sun on tuneful Memnon rose: 
O changeless Sphinx! 

O voiceless Sphinx! 
Thy solemn lips are dumb; 
Time's awful secrets hold'st thou in thy breast; 
Age follows age, — revering pilgrims come 
From every clime to urge the same request, — 

That thou wilt speak. Poor creatures of a day, 
In calm disdain thou seest them die away: 
O voiceless Sphinx! 

Majestic Sphinx! 
Thou crouchest by a sea 
Whose fawn-hued wavelets clasp thy buried feet; 

Whose desert surface, petrified like thee, 
Gleams white with sails of many an Arab fleet; 
Or when wild storms its waves to fury sweep, 
High o'er thy form the tawny billows leap: 
Majestic Sphinx! 

Eternal Sphinx! 
The pyramids are thine; 
Their giant summits guard thee night and day; 

On thee they look when stars in splendor shine, 
Or while around their crests the sunbeams play; 
Thine own coevals, who with thee remain 
Colossal genii of the boundless plain: 
Eternal Sphinx! 



LECTURE VII 



JAPAN 



Those who have accompanied Mr. John L. Stoddard in pre- 
vious tours of this series are accustomed to pleasurable surprises, 
but they are scarcely prepared for what awaits them in Japan. 
There they will find a nation that has advanced as far in civilization 
in three decades as the Turks have in three centuries. Nor has the 
change from feudalism to a constitutional monarchy been attended 
by the horrors familiar to readers of European history. The 
Japanese seem to have profited by the experience of other countries, 
and avoided their mistakes. 

The customs, religion, aptitudes, and general tendency of this 
interesting people are discussed and entertainingly explained by Mr. 
Stoddard, and when the reader completes this tour, he will be in 
a better position to judge of a country which must now be reckoned 
with in everything pertaining to the Pacific Ocean. 



138 Illustrations, 



exhibiting the same artistic finish seen in previous issues of this 
series, complete the charm of this lecture, and impress the reader 
very much as would the actual sights. 

Lecture VII will be sent post-paid on receipt of the low 
introductory price charged for previous lectures. 



THE LAKESIDE PRESS, R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY, PRINTERS, CHICAGO. 



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